4 Palestinian Children Killed in Israeli Air Strike Right in Front of Reporters

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Following yesterday’s failed cease-fire, an Israeli naval gunboat has reportedly struck seven children near the port in Gaza, killing at least four. One remains in critical condition. Moments earlier, the kids had been playing soccer with a reporter from NBC, who witnessed the attack firsthand. Dozens of other journalists werenearby.

4 Palestinian kids killed in a single Israeli airstrike. Minutes before they were killed by our hotel, I was kicking a ball with them #gaza

We could smell the charge. I wondered: Did Hamas just fire a rocket? But it was the sound of an incoming missile. We saw a small fisherman’s shack on the quay, churning with graysmoke.

Then we saw a gang of kids running from the shack, down the breakwater and onto the sand, hurtling toward Al Deira. A couple of waiters, the cook and a few journalists starting waving at them. Run here! Then a second missile exploded on the beach right behindthem.

The staff were yelling, “They’rehurt!”

A half-dozen kids made it to hotel. The oldest was a teenager, who reached safety and fainted. He was scooped up and carried away to a taxi by the big friendly bear of a bellman, room cleaner and night watchman named Mahmoud AbuZbaidah.

The Israeli military has said it provides evacuation warnings for targeted areas to minimize civilian deaths, but according to NBC foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, “They don’t take those warnings seriously” for two reasons: “It is not clear where they’re supposed to evacuate to,” he said. “The entire Gaza Strip has been struck.” Additionally, Hamas tells Palestinians that the warnings are merely “psychologicalwarfare.”

"We're looking into it," #Israel mil spox @LTCPeterLerner says about strikes that killed four boys on beach from Bakr family.